Community Q&A's
A series of question and answer sessions with LLM community regulars where they give an insight into what the LLaMa way of playing Football Manager means to them.
This week its the turn of Swansea fan and self confessed glutton for punishment bennytee
1. What inspired you to play the LLM way?
I guess I’ve kind of always played that way, at least in terms of starting from the bottom but it’s been maybe 15+ years using the proper LLM Guidelines.
My first management game was Premier Manager 1992 on the Amiga where you were forced to start in the Conference at level 5 and work your way up. It just felt natural to continue that way.
Overall though I think my biggest inspiration is the encouragement I saw people getting from the community when they were struggling at the game and personally I find it’s a lot better to read the careers of people playing averagely like myself than those overachieving.
2. What about the LLM ethos appeals to you the most?
Aside from the realism I think it might actually be the structure of it.
I used to print out the guidelines to follow and when I did the game just became so much better.
The anti-bragging guideline was a massive part too, nothing worse than people bragging about their success when in a lot of cases they’d clearly "cheated" or at the very least gamed the system.
The idea that an LLM game is a self-contained “world” really appealed too, it helped me get my head around not looking for tactical help from others.
3. Are there any extra “rules” that you give to yourself for added realism?
I do a one hour / half hour signing rule with semi-pro and amateur teams respectively and I’m also currently experimenting with using skins with no attributes/stars to see if that feels more realistic
4. What makes the LLM community so great?
Again as I mentioned it’s the support for others if you’re doing crap.
5. The landscape of Football Manager has changed a lot over the years is there still a place for LLM?
Definitely, a lot of the guidelines and little things LLaMa’s do for realism have become part of the game.
My favourite of which is the player roles replacing sliders. I’m pretty sure I remember it being mooted on LLM forums way before it was added.
6. For a new player maybe looking to dip their toes into the world of LLM what would your advice be?
Failure is as much a part of the journey as success. It’s important to remember that in LLM in my opinion.
Without the failure the success will feel hollow. So if you’re getting absolutely smashed week after week just think how great the success will feel when it (hopefully) comes.
7. What is your favourite nation to manage in and why?
I’m going to be really boring and say England. You just can’t beat the depth and despite managing in other countries frequently I always seem to end up back there.
Special mention to the Nordic nations though, they're well covered in the game and are always fun.
8. What nations do you avoid and why?
I always try to like Brazil because of the uniqueness of the national & state leagues but the squads are so big it just gets on my nerves.
One thing I also hate is any league with "B-teams" or youth teams in the pyramid, probably because its a bit alien to me being British.
9. Who are you currently managing and how is it going?
I’m in North Wales with Rhyl and (whisper it quietly) its going okay
